Donald Tsang and the Cultural Revolution

I was in Hong Kong over the weekend and thus subjected to repeat viewings of Donald Tsang's controversial remarks from Friday. If you missed it, the Bowtied One declared that China's Cultural Revolution was an example of the dangers of democracy. When the interviewer challenged him on that point, Hong Kong's Chief Executive dug in and repeated the assertion. (You can see a clip with his comments here.)

Hong Kong is home to more than a few people who lived through the Cultural Revolution, a 10-year period in which the mainland was consumed with political violence. And no one was buying his remark. On Saturday he apologized and retracted the statement.

Watching the video, I was reminded of one of Tsang's defining character traits. In interviews he comes across as an extremely forceful personality, someone with an unblinking stare who never backs down. It was something that struck me when TIME Asia editor Zoher Abdoolcarim and I interviewed him earlier this year. His resolve was probably a very useful attribute as he rose in the ranks of the Hong Kong bureaucracy. But it doesn't come across well in a politician. If anything it makes him look cold and defensive, which was one of the criticisms of his debate appearance in March.

More than his appearance though is the concern that his statement was something of a Mel Gibson traffic-stop moment, though in Tsang's case without the excuse of the booze doing the talking. He has apologized, but you have to still wonder what he really thinks.